Yes – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is just out and now shipping! Pretty much on the time­frame we forecast, you can download a free trial today… And the new product will work side-by-side with any previous releases of Lightroom you may own. If you have an earlier version installed, Lightroom 4 will ask if you’d like to upgrade your catalog and copy everything over.

International versions are priced lower across the board as well. Languages available today include English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Chinese.

Moments ago Adobe also redoubled their longstanding special offer where you can get 33% more off the price of Lightroom (now making it $99!) when you purchase it together with Photoshop (full or upgrade) – only now it’s Lightroom 4 with Photoshop CS6 (or any suite containing Photoshop CS6). No coupon or promo code is required for the discount.

Also, if you happened to purchase Lightroom 3 within the past 30 days, then if you like you can file to return it under Adobe’s Refund Policy and order Lightroom 4 instead. It’s not an official “grace period,” but it works.

What’s different in the final release compared to the recent LR4 beta version? According to Adobe, not too much in additional features – but rather making the new things work even better. The LR team cites five relatively minor changes, plus “Over 800 bugs found and fixed! (Thank you Lightroom 4 beta customers!)”

Note that the beta version will expire on March 31, at which point you could either buy the full & final product, or get the trial for another 30 days free.

Adobe Lightroom 4 Direct Download Links

Below are the direct links to instantly download the Lightroom 4 free trials for both PC and Mac, without needing any download manager or assistant. The trial works fully for 30 days. To access these down­loads you need to have a free Adobe account and be logged in – so follow these important instructions carefullyor the links will not work:

Adobe recommends temporarily turning off any surfing restrictions you might have running, like site or cookie blocking, filtering, firewalls or antivirus software.

Wrapping It Up

So with the benefit of nearly two years of product development since the previous version plus the beta period under its belt, this fourth-generation digital darkroom is looking like a very smooth and polished final release. And the new low price, wow… thank you Adobe!

I just received my copy of LR3 in the mail (took advantage of the lower price). I called Adobe & they will refund that product or sell the $79 upgrade, but wouldn’t upgrade for free. I suppose that makes sense, but your article makes it sound like those who bought in the last 30 days might get a free upgrade to LR4.

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for your comment. If you refund the Lightroom 3 you bought, and get Lightroom 4 instead, then it’s the same difference, no? The prices on LR4 now have gone down so it could even be cheaper to do it that way.

As for a free upgrade grace period, we’re basing that news from what Adobe wrote on Facebook this afternoon… and it’s a common practice after their product releases. But even if their customer service reps aren’t all briefed on it yet (which has happened in the past as it takes a while for the news to filter down), then you can effectively accomplish the same thing via a LR3 refund and LR4 purchase instead.

Lightroom 4 looks fantastic, but what about total ‘newbies’ like me that have NEVER used a photoediting program before? Are there teaching aids (tutorials) available – I mean LOTS of them? My little Canon Digital is only a PowerShot A2000 IS. I have always HOPED for a Canon Rebel (with a 60mm Macro lens), but alas, I have not yet acquired this wonderful camera. Would I still benefit from Lightroom 4? Thanks for anything you could tell me!

Greetings Eugene, thanks for your question. You can get a discount of 33% off of Lightroom 4 if you purchase it together with Photoshop CS6 (either a full or upgrade version, either standalone or in a CS6 suite).

Hi Ian, it sounds like maybe you lost the file extension when direct downloading the program… Sometimes that happens if you use Internet Explorer – it will drop the “.EXE” off the end of the Windows executable file.

If so, then you just need to add that extension back to the end of that filename – and then double-click it to get started with the LR4 installation.

THANK YOU, THAT WORKED A TREAT, had to rename the whole file as ‘adobe-lr.exe’ to make sure any further extensions were removed, after that wonderful; looking forward to see what LR4 can do with my Canon 600d’s astronomy images.

I would like to buy Lightroom 4, I have a temp version of Lightroom 3 which I have used a lot… Photography I hope will be my primary source of income, so I need to get this set up ASAP. Please help me to do that.

Welcome Angel, that does happen sometimes – it’s possible to get locked out of Adobe’s download servers after a failed attempt… Usually it resolves itself with a little time, trying later, or using a different browser, computer, or Internet connection.

My husband just recently bought me Lightroom 4 online and it gave me a serial code to use. We figured that I need to download the free trial first before I could upgrade. I have now tried it 3 times and when I try to access the program an “error” screen pops up saying I can not start the program. What am I doing wrong?

Error Message Reads

“Lightroom.exe – Application Error

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close application.”

I purchased lightroom 4 awhile back and installed it on my desktop. I’ve recently purchased a new macbook air, and would like to install it on there as well. Am I able to do this? and how? My laptop does not have a disk drive, just wondering if this is possible. Thanks!!

Yes Kristen, you can just download the old LR4 version using the direct links given above (make sure to carefully follow the download instructions first), and then install it from the .DMG file you received.